04/06/2021

10 mins

Getting a pensions review is a lot like taking your car for an MOT.

Just as a service for your car can save you cash by identifying any problems early before a catastrophic (and expensive) breakdown, it’s a similar story when it comes to seeing a pensions adviser to review your pension.

What is a Pensions Review?

During a pensions assessment, a pensions adviser will sit down with and look over your retirement provisions to make sure everything’s in the best possible position, highlighting any areas that need particular attention.

It’s essentially a massive tidying of all of your current pension savings to make sure they’re aligned with your retirement needs and working in the way you need them to. During a pensions review, your adviser might cover:

Any issues costing you money / preventing your retirement savings reaching their full potential, e.g. underperforming investments or high management charges
How your pension investments sit with your attitude to risk and requirements for a retirement income
Pension consolidation, particularly if you have multiple pension pots from different employers, to improve economies of scale
Your desired retirement age and your preferred pension income, and whether you’re projected to achieve those goals based on current pension contributions
What can be done to find the best pension for you and achieve a better retirement income.

They’ll also want to look at your wider financial circumstances, such as any property you own, savings accounts you have and any other capital / income you’ve got in your corner. That way, we can look across your entire financial circumstances.

The aim of this is to find answers to the big financial questions in life as you approach retirement, such as:

Can I afford to retire?
Can I withstand a market crash?
Can I afford to go part-time?
Can I afford that big ticket item, like a new car or a holiday home?
Can I accommodate events and experiences, such as paying for my child’s wedding or going on that trip of a lifetime?
What about potentially needing care in my later years?

Why Do You Need a Pension Review?

Analyse your pensions to save money
If you have several pension pots in different places, you’re likely needlessly paying individual charges for each fund
Review your pension history
Go back over your career with a fine tooth comb and track down any lost pensions, which you can do this yourself with the government’s free Pension Tracing Service
Assess your pensions to make full use of your tax-free allowances
You can carry forward unused pension allowance from the past 3 tax years on top of the current year’s allowance
Get a pensions assessment to increase your pension
A number of studies have shown that those who receive financial advice tend to end up richer than those who don’t, sometimes by more than 50%
Review your pension to set clear retirement goals
If you find you’re unhappy with the age and income you’re projected to be able to retire at based on your current pension pension provisions, the earlier you make adjustments the better
Check your investments
You might be invested in underperforming funds, a default fund that doesn’t suit your particular needs, or a fund that’s inconsistent with your risk appetite.

When Should I Get a Pension Assessment?

It’s best to review pensions regularly and on an ongoing basis. The markets change frequently and rapidly, and so can your circumstances.

Ideally, you’ll sit down with your adviser on at least an annual basis to review your pensions, discuss how they’re performing and work out how close you are to achieving your retirement goals, as well as having quarterly ‘updates’ to talk through any changes to your circumstances.

If necessary, you can make any adjustments to your pensions at these reviews based on your adviser’s recommendations.

Regular, professional analysis of your pensions and your retirement needs can help make sure you stay on track and get the retirement you’ve always planned.

On top of regular meetings with your adviser regarding your investments, you should:

Review your pension following a major life event, such as marriage, divorce or bereavement
Assess your pension options when you change jobs, particularly if you have a pension from your old employer
Review your pension requirements if your health drastically deteriorates, even if you’re not yet at retirement age
Take account of all your pension arrangements if you’re writing your will
See where you stand with your pensions if you’re at or approaching age 55, the age you can cash in defined contribution pensions.

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How Do I Review My Pensions?

The best way to review your pensions is to seek professional pensions advice. Signing up for a pension review puts your retirement in the hands of experts who have years of experience in making sure everything is working for you.

While it is possible to successfully self-manage something as important as your pension, most people simply can’t dedicate the required time. The bigger your pension pot or the more complex the investments you’re considering, such as if you’re thinking of investing in a SIPP, the more valuable professional advice becomes.

Can I Get a Free Pension Review?

At Drewberry, we will offer you a pension review as part of our financial planning service. This will involve modelling your current wealth and potential future retirement position on a timeline to see how your later years may map out.

We’ll offer a free demonstration of the financial planning software we use so you can get an idea of how it will benefit you and help you meet your retirement goals.

Here are some examples of how we have helped other individuals get on track for the retirement they deserve:

We are always open about our charging structure, as is required by regulations laid out by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Be wary of companies that offer you free pension reviews, free pension transfers, free pension release or ways to cash in your pension tax-free if you’re under 55.

These are all common tricks fraudsters use to lure in unsuspecting individuals with pension funds. This will likely be a ruse to channel you towards handing over your pension to them, for which the fraudsters could charge a steep fee.

How to Avoid Pension Fraud

As mentioned, there are a lot of ways unscrupulous people will try and get access to your hard-earned pension savings, which could result in your losing everything. Many will be offering pension reviews or pension liberation scams to tempt you in, but are really a front for scams.

Things you should look out for to protect yourself from pension scams include:

Beware cold calls
Drewberry will follow up with a phone call if you leave your details on our website and announce who we are, but if you receive a phone call out of the blue from a company you’ve never heard of or interacted with promising a free pension review, the best thing to do is hang up
Check the company’s address
Be wary if a firm doesn’t have a physical address, or if any address they offer on their websites turns out to be a provider of PO boxes when you search for it
Make sure you can call the company back
A reputable company should always allow you to call them back at your convenience; if they don’t, they may not have an inbound phone service set up, which is a warning sign in itself
You can’t unlock your pension before age 55
Don’t be drawn in by a company promising to give you access to your pension before the age of 55. This is rarely possible, with one exception being if you’re seriously ill and it prevents you from continuing your normal occupation
Know the penalties for accessing your pension early
If you try to liberate your pension before the age of 55 without having been diagnosed as seriously / terminally ill (or being a member of a scheme with a younger protected retirement age) you’ll incur a hefty 55% tax charge because HMRC will class it as an ‘unauthorised payment’
There are no loopholes
No matter what you’re promised, there are no loopholes or any other means of unlocking your pension early unless you’re terminally / seriously ill or a member of a scheme with a younger protected retirement age
Don’t let any company rush you
Your pension planning is a major financial decision that will need to last for the rest of your life, so don’t get pressured into agreeing on the spot or signing papers delivered to your door by courier requiring your immediate signature
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
Promises of high-yielding investment opportunities with low or no risk to you might sound incredibly tempting but such investments are unlikely to be legitimate
Be extra cautious about overseas investments
While there are some perfectly legitimate overseas investments you can make with your pension (speak to a pensions adviser for more on this), the ones offered by cold callers should make you think twice
Know what classes as a legitimate pension scheme
Only a pension recognised by HMRC will be eligible for tax relief; if you shift your money into an investment scheme not recognised as a pension plan, there could be tax charges.

Your Financial Plan – Build A Better Future

A good financial plan can help you make the right decisions when it comes to your finances. Make the right decisions today to build a more prosperous future.

Good financial planning with clear goals can increase your retirement income by as much as 53%. Old Mutual Redefining Retirement Survey

Why Speak to Us…

We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as planning our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to let us help.

See your financial future
We use sophisticated financial modelling technology to visually show you your financial future. A living financial plan where you can clearly see what you can achieve depending on the decisions you make – read more
Achieve the retirement you deserve
Can afford that dream round-the-world trip? Can you help your children onto the property ladder? We’ll model your goals and build your financial plan to help you achieve them.
Our expertise saves you time and provides peace of mind
Organising your pensions, investing your assets, managing risk and making the most of your tax allowances is all taken care of as part of your financial plan.
We’ve got bargaining power on our side
This allows us to negotiate better rates for you than dealing with providers yourself.
You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
You will speak to a named expert with a direct telephone and email. No more automated machines and no more being sent from pillar to post – you’ll have someone to speak to who knows you.
Benefit from our 5-star service
We pride ourselves on providing a 5-star service, as can be seen from our 2386 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5.
Gain the protection of regulated advice
You are protected. Where we provide a regulated advice service we are responsible for the decisions we help you make. Doing it yourself or going direct to a provider won’t provide this protection, so you won’t benefit from these securities.